The NPTC 2023 Benchmarking Survey Report, an exclusive members-only benefit sponsored by an NPTC five-star member company, Penske Truck Leasing, will be officially published on Aug. 1.
The report is regarded as the foremost authoritative resource of private fleet practices in the U.S. and one of the most valuable benefits of council membership. This publication has become the “gold standard” by which private fleets assess, justify, and scorecard their performance and continuously improve their operations.
“This report is an especially valuable part of NPTC services,” said Steven Roberts, CTP, a member of NPTC’s board of directors and fleet manager of Deseret Transportation, the private fleet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “It gives us a deep dive into our own operations as compared to other fleets.”
Confidentiality and trust are hallmarks of the report. Information collected from participating fleet companies is treated as privileged and proprietary and never discussed or shared within or outside NPTC. Aggregate data presented in the report itself is anonymous and made without attribution to individuals or their corporate affiliations.
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NPTC retains sole and exclusive management control of the report, including the survey questionnaire, data collection, analysis, production, and distribution to participating fleet companies. For the first time, the survey questionnaire was offered this year in an electronic format designed exclusively for the council to ease the process of data submission and further enhance security.
Produced under the leadership direction of author and general editor Tom Moore, CTP, NPTC’s executive VP, the report has evolved over the years into the largest and most comprehensive research project ever conducted on private fleet best practices and operational protocols.
To augment the value of the report, Moore will, upon request, provide participating individual fleets with customized “data pulls” that show how their fleet compares with other peer fleets operating in the same business sector and how their fleet’s data stacks up against national trends and norms.
The council wishes to recognize members of the NPTC Benchmarking Survey Committee, made up of fleet member company representatives and NPTC staff. The committee assists in making numerous improvements including building more diverse content of fleet operating practices and allowing for a greater range and depth of key metrics.
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The members are David Barth, CTP, transportation operations manager, Wegmans Food Markets, and vice chair, NPTC board of directors; Mike Cramer, corporate VP of transportation, Quikrete Cos.; Catherine Gammill, director of supply chain logistics at AutoZone and member of the NPTC board; Carl Hamilton, general manager of New South Express; Kevin G. Howell, CTP, dedicated liaison planner, Perdue Transportation; Ellen Ingram, CTP, human resources director, America’s Service Line, and board member of the NPTC Institute Board of Governors; and Mike Keller, CTP, national senior logistics manager at Pitney-Bowes.
Other members are T.J. Mummert, CTP, director of logistics for ProVia Logistics; James Nissenberg, CTP, VP of logistics, Santa Monica Seafood; Joe Schneider, CTP, senior transportation manager at Frito-Lay; Joseph Siejakowski, CTP, director of operations at Lumina Brands; Rick Van Gemert, director of safety and compliance at Sentinel Transportation; Cassie Wood, CTP, safety analyst at BCT; and Mike Schwersenska, CTP, general manager of transportation and logistics, Brakebush Transportation, and candidate to chair the NPTC Institute Board of Governors.
Consistent with participation in past years, more than 100 fleet member companies participated in the 2023 report. Surveyed companies are a representative mix of diverse business markets throughout the U.S. economy. Participating companies have, on average, dozens of terminals, 300-400 drivers, and 1,200 or more trailers. Driver turnover came in at 18%, down from 22% last year but slightly above the previously reported 14.5% running turnover average for more than a dozen years.
“Safety continues to be a major focus,” Moore said, “coming in at 0.4 DOT recordable accidents per million miles of travel. This matches last year’s lowest ever number.”
Also, despite reported difficulty in obtaining equipment, fleets don’t appear to be extending their trade cycles for Class 8 equipment. “Trade cycles of 6.3 years and 602,000 miles are nearly identical to last year,” Moore added. “When we remove leased units from the calculation, the numbers moved up to 7.1 years and 717,000 miles (compared to 6.9 years and 662,000 last year).”
David Fontana, CTP, national fleet manager for AutoZone, said: “The benchmarking report is a great tool for fleet justification. We’re big believers and have participated for several years. Learning about leading operating trends of other fleets has helped us meet the challenges of double-digit growth in the past three years.”
